Happily Ever After
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Beast and Belle discuss fairy tales' happy endings.


Title: "Happily Ever After"  
Author: Pirate Turner  
Rating: G  
Summary: Beast and Belle discuss fairy tales' happy endings.  
Disclaimer: Beast, Belle are all © & TM Disney and are used without permission. Everything else is © & TM Pirate Turner. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this story, and it is for entertainment purposes only.

" . . . and they lived happily ever after," the brunette read aloud as she finished the book. Her left hand gently brought the front of the book to meet its back, thus closing the hefty book with maroon covers trimmed in gold.

Her companion's large eyes were still gazing adoringly at her. "Do all stories end like that?" he asked curiously as he continued to watch the flickering firelight play across her beautiful face and soft hair. Although she had read dozens of stories to him, he had yet to hear a different ending.

"Fairy tales do," she replied, glancing up at his furry face and feeling the familiar catch of breath in her throat. "That's part of the reason why I like them so much," she admitted with a small smile.

"But what about other stories?" he asked.

"Some have happy endings but not all. I suppose you might say that they're the more realistic books," she answered, the corners of her mouth beginning to droop slightly in the beginnings of a frown. In that same instant, something flickered in her eyes.

Although the Beast immediately regretted having asked her about the endings as answering his questions had brought such a change in her previous jovial mood, he could not help feeling rather confused. "Why do you say that, Belle?" he asked her, his voice, facial expressions, and eyes gentled even more by his concern for her. "Why do you think they are the more realistic ones?"

She had to turn away from the concern he looked down at her with so that he would not see the sadness creeping into her eyes. Her head turned back to watch the flickering fire once more as she asked him softly, "When was the last time you heard of a Prince sweeping to some poor girl's rescue in real life? As much as I love the stories and have wanted to live the fairy tales, even I have finally come to admit that the only way any one can truly live a fairy tale is through reading stories."

His right paw reached out to gently cup her cheek. He was extremely gentle and even more careful not to allow his long claws to touch her tender skin as he brought her head to look up at him. "Happy endings do sometimes happen, Belle," he told her gently, his eyes gazing down into hers. In that moment, he wanted to tell her so much more. He wanted desperately to tell her how much she had came to mean to him, to confess how lonely his life would still be had she never came to replace her father, and to inform her that she was not only what made him believe in happy endings but also the one thing in all the world that was capable of saving him, and yet he dared not speak a single word more.

Belle gazed up into Beast's eyes as her heart begged her to tell him so much more than her lips would ever dare allow to pass from them. She wanted to confess that she almost felt like she was living a fairy tale. Indeed, she realized, if only it could have a happy ending, she would be living a fairy tale, but it could not possibly have a happy ending as long as she was forbidden to be with her father. She never wanted to leave Beast for she had long ago realized that she was falling madly in love with him, but she could never be completely happy when she could not also be with the only being who still meant more to her than the man before her.

They stayed like that for a long time, both aching to say far more than they dared to allow themselves to, until finally Belle reluctantly pulled away from Beast's gentle touch. "It's really late, Beast," she spoke, her words barely a whisper though his ears could hear her perfectly well. "We should go to bed."

Although he wanted to, he did not rise to stop her as she stood and, picking her long, pink skirts up just enough so that she would not be endangered of tripping over them, rushed from the library. His heart ached as he watched her go, and in that moment, he vowed that one day, some way, he would prove to her that fairy tales could come to life.

* * *

Several months later again found the couple in front of the crackling fire in the library. This time, however, Belle cuddled much closer into her beloved's arms as they read together from the large book, and it was a man instead of a beast that held her. As he finished reading the last passage of the fairy tale, Belle's head leaned against her husband's chest as she enjoyed the sounds of not only his sexy voice reading softly to them but also the gentle rhythm of his heart.

" . . . and they lived happily ever after," the Prince finished, closing the book as he did so. They laid in silence for a while, just enjoying the wonderful feeling of being so close together, as Belle's mind turned back to a time before she had learned the truth of the curse. At that time, she had thought that there could not possibly be any happy ending for her life when she was torn between a beast who, though he cared deeply for her, would never have allowed herself outside of the castle grounds and her loving father.

Belle's lips curved up into an even brighter smile as she realized just how terribly wrong she had been then. She had indeed been living a fairy tale at the time; it had only taken her living story longer than the fairy tales in books to have its happy ending. She turned her husband's loving embrace just enough so that she could gaze adoringly up into his baby blue eyes. "I was wrong," she admitted softly.

"Wrong," he asked, clearly surprised, as his right hand gently stroked her cheek, "about what?"

"About fairy tales. You were right when you said that they do sometimes come true." He waited for her to explain what had changed her thoughts on the matter as she turned around in his embrace. "Mine did," she explained, her brown eyes searching his blue ones, "and your the Prince that rescued me from my boring life and made me believe." As she spoke, her hands reached up to softly cup and caress his cheeks, her fingertips running up into the sides of his smooth, blonde hair. She leaned closer to him as, her eyes never moving from his, she pressed her lips to her husband's in a gentle kiss. Belle's Prince deepened their kiss as his strong arms wrapped gently around his wife's slender waist. The flickering firelight cast shadows upon their forms as they continued to kiss long into the night, their passion growing steadily as they poured all their eternal love for each other alone into their lovers' embrace, . . . and they lived happily ever after.

**The End**


End file.
